A short walk from the abbey, the Bethlehem Diorama is one of the more unusual things you can see in Switzerland. The panorama depicts the town of Bethlehem at the time of the Nativity in meticulous detail: roughly 450 hand-carved figures, hundreds of buildings, and an animated lighting system that cycles through day and night. The whole scene measures about 100 square metres.
It was built starting in 1930 by a local craftsman, Karl Kündig, and has been continuously extended and refined since. The level of craft is serious — this is not a tourist trap, but a work that took decades and is treated with corresponding seriousness by the town. It is open year-round, though it sees the most visitors in the weeks leading up to Christmas.